Robin comes to my rescue though and tells her to quit picking on me. I can’t help it if I was given all brawn and very little brain. She tells her I make up for it in other ways though that she will not expand upon, because there are children present. I just keep my mouth shut, I have tried to defend myself and it always gets me picked on more. I am concentrating on defending us from the men from the south. We hear the sound over by the market we got supplies at last evening, and then we don’t hear it anymore. Obviously they have turned off the motor because we hear it backfire, probably because of the hole in the exhaust system. As if she can read my mind, Sara looks at me and says the timing is off, she could hear it missing on one cylinder. Gary agrees, but then the traitor always agrees with her, so that doesn’t prove a thing.
Olivia and her mother, whose name is Marge, is whispering that now the men will spread out, and look for people to capture. I decide to give them someone to take. I tell Sara to go out there and let them capture her, it would serve them right. I get smacked by Robin, Sara, Olivia, and her mother. Women have no sense of humor. I tell them I will let myself get captured to get close to them, and then the others can turn the tables on them. Marge says that it will not work. She says none of their men are as big or as muscular. They will never believe that I am one of them. Before I can say anything, Don takes off in the direction of the store. We follow at a distance, but we keep him in sight all the time. Olivia asks me to please make sure he doesn’t get hurt. I assure her that he is a very tough young man, but we will not let anything happen to our best hunter.
We are in a residential area of two story houses, much like any neighborhood. I kind of wish Tim was here, because I know that he has been trained in urban warfare. I’m not sure what training Gary has had along those lines. We go a couple of blocks and we can now hear distinct voices coming toward us. It sounds like they are arguing about having to get up so early and drive here. They are saying that there are probably not anymore people here anyway. A second voice says that he saw a blonde the last time they were here and he wants to find her. He says he will take his turn before they leave. The other voice says he will as well, because he is tired of the women they have back at the place. This is the worst kind of predator I can think of. They have absolutely no compassion for others, but corner them and they beg not to be hurt. These two are dying today if I have anything to say about it. I’m sure that’s Olivia they are talking about.
Don takes the gun out of his waistband when we hear their voices. Something tells me I will have to stand in line to kill these two. We all have our guns out. Sara has a 9mm that is a twin to the one I carry. I am just hoping to find out where these guys come from while they can still talk. We are about a short block away from the two voices when we hear another voice, yelling that he has a couple women trapped in a building. The voice is coming from our left so we all head that way. There must be some women in the city that we didn’t find yesterday. We go about a hundred yards, when the other voice yells that they went out the side. I am not expecting to have three teenage girls and an older woman come running straight at me not more than twenty yards away. They haven’t seen me yet and almost run into me before they do.
They are obviously frightened and come to a dead stop before they run me over. I put my hand to my mouth signaling for them to be quiet. They start to turn when they see Robin and Sara motioning for them to come to them. Then all heck breaks loose. The guys that are hunting the girls come running around the building. They are yelling, to scare the girls more, and telling them what they are going to do to them. The first one is only about three steps from me when he sees me. I cover that distance and tell him he will have to make other plans; the ladies dance cards are full. I take him square in the face with my forearm and elbow. He goes down like he was hit with an axe handle. The other three, there must have been two in that second group as well, stop short and raise their guns to fire. They never get the chance because the bullets from three guns end the argument before it really ever got started.
I tell the others to watch the only one left alive while I go see if there are any more. I don’t see anyone else, but I hear the vehicle start up and take off, headed out of town. I can see it just before it turns a corner, but I can’t get a shot off. I do see that it is what we used to call a panel truck, like the ones they used to use for deliveries, where we came from. I look around a little more, when I don’t find anyone I head back to where I left the others. The guy I knocked out is now awake and is obviously scared. He can see the bodies of the guys he came here with. The people we met yesterday are coming to where we are, they heard the gunshots, but weren’t sure who won, until they heard the truck heading out of town as fast as it could. When they see the one we captured just about all of them want to hit him, and several ask if they could please shoot him, if we will show them how to use a gun.
At least this guy isn’t like the criminals where I come from. If he was, he would be yelling excessive force, and demanding to speak with his attorney. In this world, he knows he is very close to joining his friends. I ask him where his friends are. He says that he will tell me if I will promise to let him go. I call a meeting of our group and we step off to the side. I tell them I don’t like letting this guy go, but it sure would help if we could find out where those guys are. They are already warned that we could be coming after them, but that won’t be until we come back, so they may relax by then. We decide to trust him, even if the others don’t think we should. Gary asks him where his friends are and what they do with the people they take. He says that they use the people they take to do the work. The women work and are used by the people in charge for pleasure. If they are pretty enough they don’t have to work as hard.
This guy is making me sicker by the moment. I am watching his face when Gary asks him where they are located. He starts talking in circles, about how you go down this road then go down another. I see his eyes look toward the roof across the street and a faint smile crosses his face. I take about ten steps to the right, where I am under an overhang, and look up at the building across the street. I see nothing, and then just as I think it was my imagination, I see a face appear over the edge. Then a rifle barrel is being thrust over pointing at the people on the ground. It’s a fairly long shot for a hand gun, but that’s all I have. At least I can give him something to think about. I fire at the head, and hear the rifle bark death for the guy we were questioning. My second shot must hit the shooter because he stands erect then falls over the edge into the street below. There is no way to know if he was trying to kill the other one, or if that happened as an accident. Neither of them are talking so we will just have to find where they take the people.
We gather up everyone that is going back with us and decide to take a sweep of the city just to make sure. It’s a good thing we do, because we find another small group that has three young women, two children, and a man that looks like he is in his forties. We get back to the farm at about four in the afternoon. They are expecting us because we called on the CB when we were about five miles away. The leaders of the other groups are here to meet the new people and to discuss where they should live, at least for now. Later they may have a preference once they get to know everybody. Olivia asks if she can stay here if that is where Don lives. There is room in the house he lives in for her and her mom, but we are all betting that her mom loses her roommate very soon.
Doc McEvoys group takes one of the groups and Barbs group takes the rest. Her group is the smallest and can really use the few men that came back with us. All the people that came back with us are amazed at the way we live. That’s not too surprising because we are sometimes amazed at how lucky and blessed we have been. We explained to them before we even came back what will be expected of them if they are going to live with our groups. It’s not much really, all we expect is that everyone does their share of the work. We also realize that the people we find have never lived like we do, so it will take them time to learn the different chores we all
do. Heck I’m still learning some of the chores that I don’t do often or have never done before.
We hold a family council to determine what we should do about the men from the south. Everyone agrees that we should at least try to find them, and free anybody that is being held against their will. We also agree that we should begin cleaning up another farm that is a mile from Barbs family. It is a nice place with four or five houses and some sturdy looking barns. The new people are excited to get started helping with the cleaning and rebuilding. We also decide that we need fighting men along on the next trip we take looking for the others. We also know we can’t leave the group without protection while we are gone as well. The gentleman who was with the last group we found in the city volunteers to come along. Oh yes, his name is Ray and although he hasn’t had a lot of experience, he is more than willing, so we will use him. Sara and Gary both want to go again. Robin decides to stay home because she missed the children too badly. Ray’s wife Carol says she will go because she knows at least some of those who have been taken, and with her along they may not be so frightened of us. Dan, who is Don’s brother, decides to come along because Don says he has to make sure Olivia learns her chores properly.
We have an excellent meal and play some music for our new friends. Only a few of them even remember electric lights and eating fresh meat and bread. Tonight for the first time some of them will sleep in a warm bed in a heated home. When they are about to leave to go to their respective homes, Marla, the mother of the children that Robin and I saw first, tells us all how thankful she is that we have brought them here to live. She says that she learned to pray when she was a little girl and she has been praying with all her might for the past few weeks because she was out of options that were under her control. She also asks us if we all lived like they did, how did we ever know to come here, and how have we accomplished so much? We smile and tell her we will explain all that later. Now let’s get a good night’s rest so we can go after their family and friends tomorrow.
When they leave and we get ready for bed, I get to play with the children for a while, which me and they missed very much. Teddy says he thinks he should be able to go with us because he is almost a man. At twelve he is doing very well with his fighting lessons and can shoot quite well also. I tell him I could really use him on this trip, but I have a dilemma, if both of the men in the family leave, who will take care of the women and children? He thinks for a minute and tells me he will stay home, but those girls better start listening when he tells them something. His sisters Kathy and Karen stick their tongues out at him. Tina and Tammy who are stepsisters tell him that they will do what he says, if mommy says they should. I tell him that if the girls are doing something they shouldn’t, or that is dangerous, to tell the moms and they will make sure they don’t do it again.
Teddy says he can do that, but he thinks the girls should listen to him the way they do me. Robin and Dayna who are sitting on either side of me whisper, “Since when,” so that only I can hear them. Melissa, who is holding Tina, smiles and says, “Yeah right.” Don’t get the wrong idea about our relationship. If there is an issue of safety, or something important, I have the last word, because that is what I know best. When it comes to raising the children, I bow to the women of the house. Oh, by the way, Dayna asked me if I explained our situation to you. I kind of forgot that you may not know us very well yet. I am married to all three of the women I live with and all the children call me daddy, even though little Timmy is my only biological child. It was the girl’s idea, not mine, but I am not complaining either. We started plural marriage because there are so many more women than men in our groups.
So far it is working well, I love Dayna, Robin, and Melissa and I am very proud that the children think of me as their father. Morning comes much too quickly, as it has a tendency to do. This time we are taking more fire power along in case we need it. Roy who is a member of Ryan’s family decided to come along. We are glad of that because he has proven to be a very good shot with any weapon and he is his group’s best hunter. Dan is bringing along a couple of bows with enough arrows to fight a war with. He is as good with his bow as Roy is with the guns. We are taking two vans and the pickup truck. We saw a couple of dealerships in the city that had some very nice stake body trucks in the lot. There were also two propane trucks and a gasoline tanker in that city. We will have to take a look at getting those, when we have accomplished getting those people freed.
3
Billy really wishes he could come along, but they may need him here. He is definitely the strongest man in any of the groups, and the biggest. He is over seven feet tall and weighs about 350 pounds. He is also one of the nicest people you could ever meet. We take off about mid- morning. We do not even know where we are going once we get past the city. It takes less time getting there this time because we had to push some vehicles and other obstacles out of the way the first time. We stop by the propane trucks and see that they are both almost full. We will definitely get these either on the way back, or we will come back for them. The gasoline tanker is also almost full, so we will get that as well. We go to where we last saw the guys from the south. The bodies are still here and so is some sign that we didn’t expect.
Looking around we find where the truck was parked and not too surprising there is a puddle of oil on the ground. Not a lot, but enough to see they have an oil leak. Now, according to the people we found here, those guys came here fairly often, so there may be a trail of oil leading to where they come from. There is not a lot of traffic on the roads, so it stands to reason that if we find oil on the road it came from their vehicle. Like most small cities there are only a couple of main roads in and out of here. Gary and I decide to walk ahead of the vehicles and look for signs of oil on the road. It doesn’t take very long until we find what we are looking for. We don’t have to follow the trail closely because there are only so many places they could turn off. We drive a good ten miles before we see more sign that someone has been driving on the road. This is at a cross roads and there are tire tracks on the pavement where someone took the corner too fast, more than once, by the amount of rubber on the road.
We have to be more careful now because we have no idea how far away they are. We are all watching a different direction searching for any sign of life. We go down this road for about six miles then we see the same kind of tracks on the pavement. We are following cautiously, still looking all around, hoping to see them before they see us. We are hoping to see some smoke maybe or something else we can see from a distance then go ahead on foot to see what we are getting into. We are barely crawling, not wanting to tip them off that we are coming. This reminds me of some of the missions that Tim and I have been on. Sara looks at me and asks me if this feels more like home to me. The unit Tim and I were in rescued her when her plane got shot down in a war zone. That was only a little over a year ago, but it seems like such a long time ago. I was going to say worlds ago, but it really was.
I turn to look behind us and when I turn back forward again I am startled by a young woman, who almost runs into the side of the van. She is disheveled like she is running away from something or someone and is about at the end of her endurance. Carol says she knows that girl, who is trying to run around the van, to get away from us. Carol, Ray, and I jump out of the van and Carol calls to her that we are friends. She looks extremely frightened and unsure whether or not to believe us. The next thing I know, I am face to face with a very dirty man carrying a gun, obviously following the young lady. He is as startled as I am, but I am better trained because I strike out with my forearm and elbow knocking him to the ground. He is not out though and is scrambling to get his gun around to bear on me when I hear the whistling sound of an arrow going past my ear, and see an arrow sticking through the dirty man.
My first fear is that they are traveling together and now we have killed her husband, but she finally relaxes and all but falls into Carols arms. She is sobbing almost uncontrollably trying to tell Carol what ha
ppened. We give her some water and let her sit in the van, where at least she is comfortable, and can catch her breath. Finally she can tell us what we need to know. She was apparently working in the fields and overheard the dirty guy telling one of the other guards that he was going to take her back to the barn and teach her some manners. We all understand what he meant. She says when he unlocked the leg irons she pushed him down and took off running. She ran for what seemed like a long time, all the while the dirty guy kept yelling for her to stop because he would just hurt her more when he finally catches her. She says she was just about ready to give up, because she couldn’t run anymore, when she ran into us. At first she thought that she had run into some of the others, even though she has never seen the vehicles.
She eats the food we give her like she is starving and probably is. We can finally ask her where the others are, how many of them are there, and how many captors are there. She says they brought two more girls in last week, which makes it fifty-three. Thirty-three are women or girls and twenty are men or boys. She says there are ten guards now, there were more, but a couple days ago several didn’t come back with the others. Carol and Ray tell her we know. They got killed when we tried to capture them. That news makes her have more hope. Sometimes when you are treated badly by others, you have a tendency to think of them as being invincible. She can see that the one chasing her wasn’t. Speaking of that we better get somewhere out of sight before they come looking for their compatriot. We go back the way we came about a mile. There is a place I remembered seeing on the way in where we can get the vehicles out of sight behind some brush.
2nd Earth 2: Emplacement Page 2
